iv ON INSTINCT IN MAN AND ANIMALS 95 



pleasurable sensations consequent on the act lead to its con- 

 tinuance. So walking is evidently dependent on the arrange- 

 ment of the bones and joints, and the pleasurable exertion of 

 the muscles, which lead to the vertical posture becoming 

 gradually the most agreeable one ; and there can be little 

 doubt that an infant would learn of itself to walk, even if 

 suckled by a wild beast. 



Haw Indians travel through unknown and trackless Forests 

 Let us now consider the fact of Indians finding their way 

 through forests they have never traversed before. This is 

 much misunderstood, for I believe it is only performed under 

 such special conditions as at once to show that instinct has 

 nothing to do with it. A savage, it is true, can find his way 

 through his native forests in a direction in which he has never 

 traversed them before ; but this is because from infancy he 

 has been used to wander in them, and to find his way by 

 indications which he has observed himself or learnt from 

 others. Savages make long journeys in many directions, and, 

 their whole faculties being directed to the subject, they gain 

 a wide and accurate knowledge of the topography, not only of 

 their own district, but of all the regions round about. Every 

 one who has travelled in a new direction communicates his 

 knowledge to those who have travelled less, and descriptions 

 of routes and localities, and minute incidents of travel, form 

 one of the main staples of conversation round the evening fire. 

 Every wanderer or captive from another tribe adds to the 

 store of information, and as the very existence of individuals 

 and of whole families and tribes depends upon the complete- 

 ness of this knowledge, all the acute perceptive faculties of 

 the adult savage are devoted to acquiring and perfecting it. 

 The good hunter or warrior thus comes to know the bearing 

 of every hill and mountain range, the directions and junctions 

 of all the streams, the situation of each tract characterised by 

 peculiar vegetation, not only within the area he has himself 

 traversed, but for perhaps a hundred miles around it. His 

 acute observation enables him to detect the slightest undula- 

 tions of the surface, the various changes of subsoil and altera- 

 tions in the character of the vegetation, that would be 

 imperceptible or meaningless to a stranger. His eye is always 



